Climate Change Adaptation and Electricity Infrastructure
RESEARCH HANDBOOK ON CLIMATE ADAPTATION LAW, J. Verschuuren, ed., Edward Elgar Publishing: Cheltenham, pp. 391-420, 2013
41 Pages Posted: 4 Apr 2013 Last revised: 19 Oct 2014
Date Written: April 3, 2013
Abstract
The threats of climate change to electricity infrastructure have been well documented and may be considered in terms of climatic variables, impacts and implications. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s 2012 report entitled Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation provides the most recent assessment of climate change impacts on electricity infrastructure as well as discussing the economic costs of adaptation measures and global and regional climate disasters, implications for development, recovery and reconstruction, and technologies for extreme events. This chapter sets out the scientific case for legal and technology adaptation responses in the electricity infrastructure sector in the face climate extremes and disasters. It proposes the adoption of the Smart Grid as one of the technological adaptation measures and relies on the experience of the Queensland flood disasters in Australia in 2010 to provide some generic examples of how governments and utilities might respond to protect electricity infrastructure.
Keywords: Extreme climate events and disasters, electricity infrastructure, adaptation, Smart Grids, Australia, the European Union, the United States, Queensland Floods Commission of Inquiry
JEL Classification: K10, K30, K33
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation